word. they are not going to bother going through a full budget process here. we know what the top line number is to read that is what we are going to work off of of the appropriations committee do it themselves. and now the appropriations bills are not coming to the floor either and you are going to end up in a situation we have another as our friend tweeted to make fun of it but that's his belief is republicans are going back on their word and that there already was a framework for handling the budget so it's not necessary to do the entire budget. mitch mcconnell would disagree with that and think they could at least half of the votes but that's what elections are for. they can fight about it and voters can decide. >> host: paul kane congressional reporter for "the washington post" talking about a week ahead heading into the home

district for the august recess. thank you so much for coming in. there was only a native american region and later a county and another state. we began in 1778.

>> she spoke at the clare boothe luce conference last week.

her remarks are about 45 minutes. >> hello everyone i am a student at azusa pacific university and clare boothe luce intern. our guest is on fox news and other cable networks. she's a popular campus speaker and a defender for conservative principles. kate obenshain made headlines when she was the first woman to chair the virginia gop from 2003 to 2006. as chairman, she led the charge against tax increases in the expanding role of government and state and national levels. she also served as the chief of staff for senator george allen and she served as chief education and health policy adviser while he was governor. now back in 2009i listened to kate talk about conservative -- talk about women and the

conservative movement, and i remember coming so inspired that i knew that one day i wanted to host her at my college campus, wherever that would end up being. when it came time this year to bring a speaker, i remember back to that day when i listened to her, and i brought her out. so this past april i had the privilege of bringing her to my campus which turned out to be very successful event and she was very inspiring. what i get my year about kate is how passionate she is so encouraging young people to become knowledgeable in public policy issues. currently, she championed her conservative convictions as vice president of the young america's foundation. she is also a clare boothe luce policy institute board of directors member and has been featured in several of the policy institute's annual calendars. she also has a new book coming out in september. she's a graduate of the university of virginia where she was the editor of the campus conservative publication, the

virginia advocate. she lives in virginia with her four children. cade inspires audiences with her passionate experience in sight, and she never hesitates to speak her mind. please join me in welcoming the dynamic kate obenshain. [applause] >> thank you, ashley. there was beautiful. i appreciate that introduction. when i went to azusa pacific -- okay, this is a small christian college. but this will be lovely. how nice, you know, no hostility. i can say but i think. my gosh. the place went nuts. even when it was announced i was coming they were ripping down all the posters, putting devil's horns and the tail. the intolerance even at a conservative campus is astounding. and i had to get ashley total credit. you just saw her. she is this lovely gracious

mild-mannered lady and she was torn. they wanted to tear her from limb to limb but she stood her ground, she was courageous, she convinced all of these leftists to come to my lecture. they were rolling their eyes or i can't believe it. but they came. and that's the point of groups like clare boothe luce policy institute, to bring in a little bit of diversity to our college campuses, show young people your contemporaries, there is another side, and perhaps it should be welcome on our college campus. this notion of the exchange of ideas come house about that? is this crazy idea you never hear it anymore. there are campus speech codes. i went to the university of missouri columbia, another lovely well, i got and i said my gosh, you guys, i wouldn't believe it but at some schools

there were free speech zones. there were little squares on the campus if you stand inside them, you may say whenever you like. you may say whatever you think. but you step outside that will square and you are bound by the campus speech codes and if you say something slightly offensive to a group that means everybody except white men and christians and actually conservative women, you cannot offend anybody or you have to go to be training or you are brought up on charges, and the kids and the university misery for light yeah -- we have one, too except it's the circle. it's not a square. they didn't realize it. like the frog in the pot but you are being robbed of your ability to think and to speak and to learn because.

i sat there with this guy i want see much about him that he's an academic from stanford, and he was talking with -- i told him what we do with the young americans foundation and clare boothe luce, and i said you know, there is some validity to having safety market professors. he did not agree. you actually think that only keynesian economics should be and he had to think for a second and said you in your ivory tower have access to what is right and what is proven? have you looked around at what happened in the united states when ronald reagan unleashed the power of the market? anyway, i just can't believe what you have to deal with on

the college campuses. so, what i want to beg you to do and then name a freedom and liberty, bring in conservative speakers through the clare boothe luce policy institute through its start of conservative group at your school. if you think they cannot imagine doing that they would hit me had run off the campus they might haiti will little bit. some of them. but you will learn and grow and learn how to defend yourself because you will expose your fellow classmates to an ideology that is foreign to them and is the responsibility to haiti and that is a tough one but you are all of to ready and you are here listening to the speakers. you're going to listen to starve parker and be inspired. she is outrageous read everything she has to say is the god's honest truth and you need to bring somebody like sar to your college campuses. show your classmates there is another side. i'm here to talk of the war on women.

you've heard about that from obama and the administration because conservatives have launched an all out assault on women. we hate women we just want to send them back to the dark ages. okay. i just have to point out this is the movement of star parker, michele bachman, and culture, incredibly strong women that champion on a daily basis. it just happens to be that we have a completely different ideology. but because we have a different ideology, we need women. if the left can convince the american people just by saying that enough times that we hate women, if this administration can, then they shot down the debate. any time john boehner or any time in a conservative mentions an issue relating to women, the left goes they hate women. they don't have to have anything to back it up. but if they say it enough time

and convince us, then they shut down the entire issue of women and that's what they want. that is why they go after women with such a viciousness, conservative women. because they know that women, conservative women represent the greatest threat to their last group, their ability to win the elections if they lose women, if they stop convincing women that they are the assault force that represents their ideology they will start losing the entire war of ideas so that they are trying to do is shut it down and trying to keep it open, free and open exchange of ideas from happening tall levels because if they do that, we went to the we cannot let them win. we have to continually engaged. i happen to believe that groups like clare boothe luce are so important because for some reason, and some of you ladies might disagree with me but for

some reason, conservative women tend to need an extra push and i don't know why but an extra push to me can be out there in a leadership role. now, as ashley said i became the chairman of the republican party in virginia, and i didn't even consider the fact that i was the first woman to be honestly it meant nothing to me. i grew up in a conservative family, but i never thought there was anything i couldn't do. i knew i could be but ever wanted to but after i was elected i went around to these different grassroots committees getting to know everybody and i can't tell you how many women came out to me. older women in particular saying i never thought that i received a day when a woman became the chairman of the republican party in virginia. i was shocked to be the totally changed my perspective. wondering why. there is a sense that maybe a woman shouldn't be or maybe there's external pressure.

one of the first things i did as the chairman of the party in virginia i'm not just giving you my resume. the first day of the training class i asked 25 byman they were incredibly successful they had been involved in the party and achieved success in whatever our reena and i ask them how many of you would consider running for office one day? one hand went halfway up. everybody else said i prefer a supportive role i like being in the background. so we went through the eight months of leadership training and by the last day i asked the same question how many of you would consider running for office? every year shot into the air baldly and confidently they were going to run for office. i am not like the national organization of women. i want women to run and be elected and involved in government or other just because

they are women. i don't care. i want the best people involved. but i have a very pragmatic purpose for wanting the women to be more involved. for one thing i think it is our obligation because freedom is literally on the press of this and we can't sit back and say i have four kids to take care of i have to stay home. but pragmatically speaking, when we promote our conservative women when we have more women in the leadership positions and the conservative movement, we bring more women to the movement. there is no question that when people look on c-span or they look at cpac, you've probably been to cpac, there are banquets and every night there's a huge diary as for the fifth like 25, 30 people. if they see -- forgive me all the men at their earned their place so please don't misunderstand me but if they see all old white men on the die is, how encouraging is that to the women that are out there

watching and we have plenty of accomplished women who should be on the bias. phyllis schlafly, there are so many women that be long and we have conservatives that need to train women and support them and cut them and we need to congratulate them. now, when you see women that have stuck their necks out like sarah palin, and god bless her, michele bachman over the past weeks, when you see that come have the audacity to stand up for what they believe and defend them, don't leave them hanging and don't jump on the bandwagon when you see some others in leadership go after them. i mean that was immediate. when she made the point about the muslim brotherhood and perhaps we should be concerned, i don't know. i'm not privy to the information that she is privy to. but she had to know something. but without even thinking it was like an all-out -- like they couldn't wait to go after michelle obama. don't do that.

defender. fecund her ability to get her point of and her perspective out. because when the women out there see the vicious attack against conservative women, like whoa i have a good life. i do not need this stuff to be i do not need to put myself out there to really need to encourage them, yes we do. we need your voice, we need your dynamism, we need you involved and we can do that by defending our fellow conservative women who have the guts to stand up for what they believe in. now, this administration has the audacity to say that conservatives are engaged in a war against women. eis is to tell you there is something wrong here and i believe the women are beginning to see it and the solid in 2010. in 2008, they didn't see it at all. they brought the hook, line and sinker for the hope and change that they were fed. and they thought my gosh.

finally, somebody is going to rise above all of this bickering and above party petty partisan politics and we finally got somebody that's when the champion what we believe in. hope and change and that does appeal to us as women. we don't like that nastiness. i am a mother of four. i don't like that. so it appeals to us but then we shall complete the trial of what the president ran on. the opposite. immediately he engaged in the most vicious partisan politics. it wasn't hope and change. it was completely divide and conquer. read them apart at the seams. he did that with women as well. so by 2010, the women crossed over and voted for conservatives and numbers we haven't seen since 1982. so, i think it's because of the devastating impact partly that this administration has had economically on women. when you're the pundits say

women are fairing so much better, the poverty rate is the highest it's been in 17 years. that is truly staggering. .. >> this has an impact on women. also, i have to tell you that i think that the women in this country are offended. i think they are truly and deeply offended by what they are seeing in this administration. and there is no good reason in

the life of julia. and why is there the need for the government to come in and hold our hand from cradle-to-grave. suggesting that there is no way for women to thrive and flourish. to perform beautifully. to achieve the american dream must the official head of government comes down. it is deeply offensive. it robs us of that individual ambition and drive to succeed. they make us think that we need help. yes, we do need help. we need our families and churches and friends. we do not need the government. in fact, we need to get the government out of the way. get out of my way and let me try. get out of my kids way. get out of my children's education i don't need this.

i don't need the stuff you're putting in my children's education. it is deeply offensive, and i hope that the opposite will happen. the administration so frequently panders to women. i hope and pray that the opposite will happen. and that women will be deeply offended. whatever they're going to get from government is going to be so much more than they could achieve on their own. and starr is going to talk about this. she's incredible. allen west was absolutely right. it is a new form of slavery, and i'm so proud of them for not talking back. i am so tired of the government coming in under the guise of compassion. they are trying to rob us of opportunities. obviously it is the most cynical attempt was the whole debate

over contraception. it was completely cynical. they put that out there, they let the church come in and say wait a minute, that is a violation of our religious liberty and the right to decide what policies we want to have. very reasonable. we have a right to decide whether or not we want free contraception, free abortion policies, opportunities. and we have the right to decide that immediately, the administration and their little cohorts out their distorted that. there are very reasonable objections. madeleine albright says every

time women take one step forward, extremists try to set us back. this is not extremism. here in america, republicans have launched an all-out attack on women's rights. seriously. they targeted women's health and are trying to roll back basic rights that most of us thought were more than a generation ago. i have no idea what she is talking about. what basic rights or conservatives trying to roll back by saying that the churches have the right to decide what kind of insurance policies they want to put out there. women will never go back to the days where we cannot control our own reproductive health care decision. we will not remain silent in the face of this misogyny and anti-women hate speech. seriously, this should blow your mind. this is so transparent and they think that women are just going to fall over and say oh, my

goodness, they hate us, they're trying to take away our rights. it is offensive. my suggestion is when you are faced with this kind of rhetoric, let's look on the other side at that woman loving left and see what they have to say about women. particularly about all women. it doesn't matter what are they are conservative or liberal women. they say that misogyny is wrong. let's see what they have to say. she was up for recall, there was a left wing, talk radio host, this is disgusting, by the way, i apologize, i did not apologize for the stuff. a radio host in wisconsin, she

really ridiculed her children and joked about her cancer. condoleezza rice was also called a black trophy and aunt jemima. by the way, this is a woman who stands up for what she believes in. you remember what happens when another woman was standing up for what she believes in and testifying in front of congress and obama picked up the phone to call her mom because he was so proud of her one barack obama called her mom? if i had said that to her, my mother was not the type to be proud of me or talk to me again. my point is that obama did nothing. nobody did anything. this was a prominent, national campaign. they absolutely did know about it. of course, he had nothing to say

about david david letterman's comments about circular nor her daughter. i don't need to go back and remind you all of that. and of course, bill maher, calling her down, he called them the most. completely unbelievable. she said nothing about this attack. she knows that ann coulter did say something -- she ripped into him when she went on a show for the things he has been saying about conservative women. nobody on the left stood up for the women that were being attacked on these television shows. ed schultz, he called serotonin

something, a bimbo alert, he called laura ingraham a. her parents should have considered it. he called another person a bag of meat. she said -- good, gosh. that is one of the nicer things i've ever she's been called -- unbelievable stuff. if i had a dollar for every time

that i've been called a bar girl, i'd be able to pay for a ticket to an obama fundraiser. it is unbelievable. i could go on for a long time. i have a longer list here. my point is certainly not to wring my hands about the sexism on the left. my point is to point out the blatant hypocrisy of the left. they don't care about women's rights or women being respected. they have an ideology. what we are talking about is

parity in congress. you know how many republican women they endorsed in 2010? era. none. in fact, they endorsed many of the democratic men running against republican women. they don't care about parity -- gender parity in congress. they care about leftists pushing through their radical leftist agenda. boy, we have radical people in the white house right now. we have radicals who are pushing their agenda at the expense of women. if the left we cared about the rights of women and women being respected and our country around the world we would be standing up for the horrors of radical islam. when they be standing up against sharia law and its implementation? they are not. in fact, it is the oddest, most disturbing thing. sharia law -- if you don't know about sharia law, men and women, you have to go learn about it. it is invading our country.

also, it is all around the world. we can do things to help women who are truly persecuted. and i think by conservative women standing up and championing the rights within our country and those of muslim women, the hypocrisy of the left -- we expose it. we are not going to sit back and watch women have their noses chopped off in their ears chopped off because they had the audacity to try to escape an abusive situation. it is just wrong what is happening. there is a beautiful book by a woman and it is called infidel. it is an amazing account of her expense with sharia law and a lot of islam lost. i am not the type to sit down and read a textbook on islam. and i'm not going to read the koran. but, her book is a moving and

compassionate tale of a woman who is enslaved to islam, a forced marriage come after living in for an islamic countries, she escaped to holland. it is an amazing tale. but she also says that it drives her nuts when the left says women have the right to wear burqa if they choose to wear one. they have the right. give me a break. these women are not choosing to wear a burqa. they have been completely brainwashed. it talks about -- she compares it to being a caged bird. when the door is opened up after such a long time, and doesn't know anything else, the state

department report, an annual report on human rights violations around the world. that is one of the main causes of human rights around the world. for them, it is uncomfortable. the main goal right now is reproductive rights for women all around the world. women are being stoned to death in the street for walking outside without a male for not wearing their mail. this administration is having a number one concern that make sure that women all around the world have a right to abortion. it is on believable. -- it is unbelievable. from the economy, too patronizing suggesting that we

need the strong arm of government, fear mongering, the left has no respect for women. and they are clearly trying to turn back -- clearly trying to continue to fear mongering and hold us in this locked grip that we have to break free from. my message to you was you beautiful young ladies, you guys, too, we need you to support us as we step out there. we absolutely do. you young ladies, i know you are asking if you can be involved. it is really tough. it absolutely is. but you have to be involved. there is too much at stake. this administration is not interested in a happy little balance. it is interested in ideology and cementing the ideology. you have to be willing to stand up and champion what you believe

in. you have to build up the skin of an armadillo. he used to break my heart when people would call me intolerant or some names. it would crush me. if we were coming out now. we would be devastated. i am in it, and you might think i'm making this up as i go along, but i am in it because of this thing called freedom. i truly believe i don't give my

consent. they are going to give away if we don't give our consent. we did not give our consent when we elected barack obama. he was elected saying one thing. he got around congress and supreme court are threatened and intimidated, try to rip us apart as a country. to impose his ideology on us in a very unhappy way. trying to argue what a democracy is about. having that free and open exchange of ideas. when you get frustrated and you get to the point where you think this is too much, i'm not going to live and do this, think back to those boundaries. don't let your eyes when sober. when they signed that declaration, they were signing their death warrant. they knew that the likely

consequences of that signing of the parchment was death for themselves and families. and they were persecuted throughout the world. in fact, john hart, his two sons were captured and putting on those unturned -- put on those warships. it was terrific. he was captured and asked to recant. he said that his voice would go free if you just recant. and he said it was the hardest choice of his life. no. not a single signer of the declaration were kids of those words. despite what their wives and children suffered. they would not recant. one more story. i was giving a speech for americans for prosperity couple of weeks ago. and they do a lot of speeches all at once. it was like a hot day, it was hotter than hades. and i wanted to go home. my kids were two hours away.

and i said i am over this and i'm going to talk to another screaming crowd of people. it's not natural for us. for us conservatives to hold up signs and shout at the top of our lungs. my hero is patrick henry. my kids all have to learn his speeches, they all give in bitter competition. this is an incredible example of courage. i am driving through town in boston, and i have never even been to st. john's church or patrick henry delivers his famous give me liberty or give me death speech. and there it was on the right-hand side. i passed st. john's church. i am a big believer in the almighty directing us and guiding us. i can't believe that i passed it.

and it just reminded me of why we are doing what we are doing. patrick henry stood on the floor of st. john's church before the colonies were even united with this notion of defending liberty. liberty comes from god. he stood on the floor of the church and they say that the raptors were shaking. as george washington and thomas jefferson listen to his speech. [inaudible] i know not what others may do, but give me liberty or give me death. we have defined what that causes in our lives. i hope to all for all of you is the cause of freedom. and that he realized the great challenges and great threats that liberty and freedom in our

way of life faces right now that it's going is going to impact you are more than anybody. you all and your children. you will be paying back what is happening right now. and i hope you will dig deep and find the courage and inspiration to stand up and champion that liberty. okay, who has questions? >> come on, you guys have some questions. wake up. >> i was just wondering if you could give us some of your more memorable experiences on college campuses? >> sure, i will try not to get too god on you. michelle easton, the this is about 10 years ago, -- i'm sure

she has those fake caps put on. she was going to smith college to talk about the failures of feminism. okay. lovely. gloria steinem went there. is that right? the cool thing about smith college is that the great chef -- oh, my gosh, no -- what is your name? juliet. i am actually psyched about it. i loved going on to college campuses and throwing out intellectual theoretical grenade into the middle of campus and letting it explode. they had never heard these ideas before in the free market. they just go nuts over the simplest of things. so i am fired up.

i gave her red meat speech. i was just ready to go with my red meat speech. i rewrote the speech all the way up there. i thought it was ungracious. i wasn't going to make anybody think -- as excited as i was, i rewrote the speech. i ran in their and they are ready for me. the first thing i said was, okay, i know you guys are not

happy about me being here. thank you or do you open your minds and i will actually open mind. and i told them that i had reread my speech, and i gave the speech and nobody protested they were already to get up and turn their backs. some are going to turn their backs and walk out. i was really hoping for a pie, but there was no pie. they all sat there and they listen and at the end, the poor little persecuted conservative advisers -- he came up to me and said you won them over with your graciousness and is not awesome? that is so great. so my point is boy, you can go into the toughest environments, and if you just show a little graciousness, you still have all of your points -- an arsenal of ideas. every time we use them, we win.

they can't compete with their ideas. i always immensely encouraged when they start calling me names because it means that they have not a single argument left. and it is so true. let me tell you, they started calling names fast. that is how deeply arsenal was. >> was wondering if you could tell us more about the upcoming book. >> my upcoming book, that's right. it is my first book. i am excited. i have been busy raising my darling babies and everybody asks if you have written books. no, i'm raising for babies. i am writing one and it is surprisingly about barack obama.

it is about this administration and the promises that it made. the complete and utter failure, how it has done the opposite and how he was going to be the great unifier and how he has gone after the very fabric of our nation unlike any other president we have ever had. it is about the fraud of hope and change. i hope you'll check it out. it is coming out actually during their convention, so they'll be very exciting. anybody else? [talking over each other] [talking over each other] >> i was wondering if you would comment on the recent controversy with chick-fil-a? >> you know, i cannot comment on it because i haven't paid attention to it. honestly, i can't say anything about it. i saw some tweaking about it today. did he say that we could boycott

it or not? >> i don't know. >> i thought he actually said no. so we asked another question because i don't want to end on the chick-fil-a. thank you. by the way, if you don't know, you are supposed to think and act like you do now. >> i was recently at the gop convention. thank you for the work you do. not only are you an inspiration to conservative women, but also to conservative men. my question to you is, what advice would you give a young man trying to climb the ladder of leadership in the party, to transform the party and make sure that the republicans do what they set out to do not so long ago. what is your response to that? >> that is an excellent question because a lot of us in the conservative movement are in the

movement, specifically because conservative movement adheres to conservative principles. they are sort of the backbone of democracy in this country. if you're interested in getting involved politically, it's in the first step is to get involved in the movement. regardless of which side you think you are eventually going to end up in. there is no better leader than somebody who has come up through the ranks of the conservative movement. in the movement we are not in it because we want glory and the ability to become governor of virginia. the governor of virginia. but we believe in a certain ideology, and if you get involved in politics before you understand the ideology deeply, not completely -- you will never understand it completely, but you have to have some basic

moral compass, philosophical compass, because when you get involved in politics, it will suck the soul in the eye unction ideology out of you before you can blink your eyes. there are so few principles and politicians out there, and i can think of some of them. michele bachmann, just an amazing leader. i'm of the great governors around the country. there are some very principled conservatives that are in the political life. but you have to understand what you believe. when somebody in politics as everybody does it, that is wrong. everybody does not do it.

everybody does not sell their soul. not involved in the dark underbelly of politics. if you can champion those ideas, you don't bend or break. you will go very, very far. thank you so much, god bless everybody. >> she is the best. i am clear easton, president of the clare luce institute. if you would like to bring key and start to your campus, i hope you will come to our website.

it could be the only conservative voice be heard at the college during the four years you were there. think of the difference you can make. >> next on c-span2, a discussion about challenges and that american indian community. in a discussion with paul kane. tomorrow, president obama's nominees for ambassador to afghanistan and pakistan will take questions from senators at the foreign relations committee. live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. on c-span3, a hearing on federal funding for rule water projects, including several construction products in the west to provide drinking water. that is live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on the senate energy and natural resources committee. >> we have to be really clear about the many ways that we own

ourselves. and we own our history. and that we make the decisions that are history is phenomenal and vital and special. >> julianne malveaux comments on politics, education and african american economic history. this sunday come your questions, calls, e-mails and tweets to the author of surviving and thriving. julianne malveaux in depth at noon eastern on c-span2 booktv. >> young men and women from 53 tribal communities across the country are in washington this week to talk about some of the challenges facing the community. it is part of the national intertribal youth summit hosted by the departments of justice, interior, health and human services, and energy. >> okay, i would like to introduce myself again.

[speaking in native tongue] >> i come from the reagan -- i'm here to be able to help you moderate the next session of this morning panel. i would like to be able to introduce and bring up ryan red corn. he is from the buffalo mesilla creative and he is going to help this year. and ryan was a pretty cool individual. many of you remember ryan and how he was. so he graduated and created his own design company. he also designs t-shirts, and

politically acclaimed t-shirt. the other thing that is really need to know about ryan is not only was he born and raised in his own reservation of the osage nation in oklahoma, but he actually work very actively and trains in the indigenous languages in his reservation and participates in the language class in his own ceremonies within his own community. he has his business going, he is in the media, he is in the message environment, and he commits himself to a drug and alcohol free lifestyle. we would like to welcome and bring up ryan red corn.

>> hello. how are you guys doing? >> we are on c-span. >> what's up. >> i would like to say hello back there. they told us not husseini backwards or anything like that. >> nothing embarrassing. especially my buddy method that is the communications director. he is turning five shades of red right now. i can tell. so you guys don't say anything to throw him off.

>> think of all the fun we had making videos and stuff. >> last year we were in albuquerque and we got altogether and all these guys here, most people don't know us as the transporter's. but what we are going to do is make a video tomorrow. we are going to make a video tomorrow and we are going to do all the writing end is there anybody here that is signed up -- i don't even know how it works -- there's going to be 30 or 40 of us. anybody?

afterward done, we're going to put it on the internet. last year, do you want to show what we did last year? [laughter] [laughter] [cheers] [cheers] >> we are the voice of the native youth. i want to tell you about my people.

my community does a lot for the children. >> my mother is a big player. >> these are my people. >> i am proud to be part of my community. >> i love my mother dimension never quite. >> we make sure that her siblings have a bright future. >> my grandmother went to a boarding school. >> we are creating a language program and helping the community here. these are my people. >> i want art tried to be safe and healthy. i want my tribe to be substance free. >> they will never turn you away when they need help. it brings the community together as one.

i am trying to get back my culture. grow a community garden that people in other when they were hungry. she would take the jacket off of her back to get someone when they were called. >> my grandma was a single mother with the kids and she traveled to communities to provide them with health care. that is my people. my hero is my grandpa. i hero is my dad. i can honestly say that he taught me everything i know. i want the people in our tribe to treat themselves with respect and care. >> my hero is my dad. >> he was courageous. >> he showed me strong leadership qualities and taught me never to be scared or speak out. i am still trying to carry on what he taught me. long live our people. >> my sister showed me that i can get through hard times if i just tried i love our community. the boys and girls club.

they treat everyone like they were their own. i love this reservation waited. my land and my love and my community and my village and that is my people. >> that's my people. that's my people. whose people? our people. [applause] [applause] [inaudible] >> there is a very famous film maker doctor. he currently works and has some stuff on netflix. how many people do you know have stuff on netflix?

[laughter] >> i had a flashback almost last year. i have to have people queue up the laughter. this is bobby wilson. bobby wilson is a really good graphic designer. he is not even on netflix. >> i got nothing on netflix. [laughter] >> he is a very good graffiti artist as well. that we are not going to be doing a graffiti workshop here.

maybe, if you behave. we will get to some crayons. [laughter] [inaudible] bobby is the most popular one here. [laughter] dallas is a very big language advocate. are there any dakotas hear? all right, he has a really big record of a birthweight for the county was wanted. he was born at 12 pounds. [laughter] that is pretty huge. natural childbirth. let's give him a round of applause. [applause] ..

another video that will go along the same lines. so i ask a lot of questions you

will fill out some answers and then we will compile that and come together and make something awesome and makes sterling going to a dark room and editing away and come out and feed him some animal crackers when it's done. that's it. thank you. [applause] >> okay. now how many of you were going to go to the video session? raise your hand. i thought they would do a great job recruiting you. are you ready for the next speaker? it's getting much better. we are in proving a lot. the next speaker was nominated by the president for the united states attorney for the district of south dakota. he was confirmed unanimously by the u.s. senate on october 15th, 2009. johnson is the u.s. attorney and he serves the south dakota chief

federal law enforcement officer supervising the prosecution of all federal crimes and litigation of civil matters in which the u.s. government has interest he's a fat generation south dakota native and graduate of the university of south dakota and the university of va school of law. he and his wife for the parents of four children and he has a special role as the native american issues of the committee for the attorney general and also serves on the attorney general -- the advisory committee as well. brandon is who you want to ask a lot of questions of when he finishes. sue payton giunta the talk come keep your questions in mind and we are going to ask him questions when he finishes the speaking engagement. please help me welcome the u.s. attorney brendan johnson. [applause]

>> good morning. thank you for representing 1i came to south dakota this morning. that was awesome. that was great. [applause] but macy stand up to or from south dakota. i have to see how many we've got in the house. all right. that's pretty good. that's pretty good. well, it's an honor to be here today. and i will tell you that today is actually a special day for me and my family because it was one year ago today that my wife and i had two little kids at the time and we flew to ethiopia. we landed in ethiopia five years ago to this day and we adopted and 8-year-old and a ten year old little boy and a little girl we showed up at an orphanage which is the capitol in ethiopia and the entire orphanage was smaller than this room, and we

show up on on monday and all of fri have a going away party at the orphanage and the orphanage had about 30 kids. going away party in the orphanage, i don't know if any of you have experienced this but a going away party is actually kind of a pretty sad situation. so our flight that day is leaving at 5:00 and the going away party starts at 1:30. we are sitting around and having ethiopian coffee and they've made a little cake and there is a knock at the door of the orphanage and a tall woman shows up. she is dressed in white and i ask the director who is that at the door cracks and she said that is your new passan's mother. so went over and asked her first of all my first question was how

did you get there? she lived three days away and told us she borrowed bus money and she slept in the basement of churches the last two nights to say goodbye to her son. my next question was how did you know that this day of all days two hours before we were leaving to come and say goodbye to your son? she said i had a vision of two little white boys kissing my son on the cheek so i knew he must be going to america and i had to come say goodbye before he left. when i think about what we are trying to do with the justice department and the indian country, over the course of the last three years, a lot of it is about making communities stronger so we don't have situations in the united states

similar to what my kids have to go to in ethiopia. the only thing harder than taking somebody else's child away is what his mother had to go through in giving her child up. we can't have that happening in communities in the united states. our communities we had some communities that there is and hope, where there is poverty. poverty off 70, 80, 90%. where -- and i've been there. where we are going and we have 14-year-old girls hanging themselves where we have an entire girls' basketball team you say how many of you have been sexually assaulted and everybody raises their hands. we have too many communities like that in the united states, and we are better than that. we are better than that.

and so the justice department what we have been trying to do is take a little bit of a different approach in the country than we've done in the past. because in the past when people talk about okay what is the u.s. attorney deutsch would do they do, they prosecute, they take people away. they take the worst of the worst. people that have done something really bad. they are the ones that get prosecuted by the u.s. attorney's office and that's true. what we are trying to do is also work with the communities because of that is the matter, when we are talking about the law enforcement, public safety in the command these, it is not just about prosecuting. it's not just about putting people in prison for as long as we can. that in and of itself is not going to make the community's leader. what makes our community seaver

is taking an approach we try to prevent crime from happening in the first place. that's where all of you come in. just as i say to my kids as i have tried to instill in my own children look, you've got a responsibility not only to yourself, which they do. but you also have a responsibility to the people back home and each one of you has that same response of the because you've heard it. there is no free lunch. this conference there is a responsibility that comes with it. you have been selected. and i tell you there are a lot of people would like to be where you are sitting right now. they would love to come to washington, d.c. for several days. they would love to have the opportunity that you are having. you are going to have those opportunities that with that opportunity comes

responsibility. okay? when you go back to me to be leaders in your community. from a law enforcement perspective let me tell you what that means too often when i go into the schools in south dakota when i'm out, one of the things i hear sometimes when people speaking honestly sometimes people say i hate the copps. i get that. how many of you have heard that? right? when you go back and our communities you are going to continue to hear that. it's very easy to knock on your head. yeah. yeah. part of being at this conference and accepting the role and being a leader and coming out here is when you go back in your community there is an expectation you're not just going to go along to get along.

you're going to stand up and when people are talking about all copps stock. judges, prosecutors. no, at some point stand up and say look there's a lot people trying to make our community better and the only way we are going to make the community better is by saying wall and christmas all of our responsibilities. cops are not all bad. that's crazy talk. we all have a role to play keeping communities safe. now what i want to become part of the reason i'm here is i want to get a sense of who you are because i will go back and meet with the attorney general and all sorts of people in washington about indian country and a lot things i like to talk about or what i hear from you. so if that some questions.

first but we get a sensitivity is. i already know who itself to condense our. how many come and stand up and how many of you can speak your native language? stand that you can speak some of your native language. okay. all right. that's a good. [applause] helm many of you -- stand at -- if you know somebody -- no, let me ask this. standiford if you have participated before. i know not a remedy does a sweat, but in south dakota i did. that's good. let me ask this. standard that you know somebody that is involved in a gang.

okay. so here's my next one. stand-up if you know somebody that's been sexually assaulted. all right. that is just about everybody in the room. please. have a seat. one of the things that we here in the statistics that you will hear people talk about is that one of three native american women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. the fact of the matter is in some of our communities that number is high year the amount of three. this is what we have to work together to change. it's not only talking about fact that native women are sacred, which they are, but it's about

everyone going back into your communities where in some communities a sexual assault is almost like a rite of passage. we'll have to go back to our communities and everest this. it is not acceptable. and, all of you -- because i met with elders in some of the communities that have taken me by the hand and said it's too late for me. but it's not too late for my granddaughter. and those of you that have him their sisters, have younger cousins it may not be too late for them. but we have to work together to try to change the culture where it's all too often acceptable. let's have a conversation about public safety and what we can do

to make communities in the indian country safer because i would love to hear your thoughts [inaudible] [laughter] >> sorry. >> no, that's fine. mr. johnson, i'm kelly. skype wonderful. welcome. >> i know that you are not really well liked because of your title, but i want to thank

you for the division of 2 miles. it is working. >> thank you very much. thank you. [applause] let me tell you what we have at rosebud, and i appreciate that. we have created a new program on the tribe and the reason is that there are too many juvenile going into the federal system when they commit offenses. we want to keep more of them out of the system so we have a diversion program on the rosebud tried where some juveniles for some offenses instantly to the federal system that didn't the tribal court and they take responsibility for what they did and that is the key you have to accept responsibility for your actions but then we have a tribal judge to sentence is the juvenile instead of a federal

judge and that's a good thing in all cases because the fact of the matter is a lot of the tribal judges know best what the native american youth needs and so you can have more of a non-traditional sentence where the judge can say you have to go and work with your altars or take some land which crosses that are not available in the system's life really appreciate that and i'd love to hear that it's working. thank you. >> can you hear me? she just asked the question i wanted to ask earlier when those people were up there i wanted to ask but since he's here let's be honest how many people know people that drink and sell drugs to kids and marijuana and stuff

like that. raise your hands. most of the people in here that raise their hand won't even go and tell. they get all scared like what are they going to do. but that's the reason our communities are getting destroyed. you guys need to stand up and tell the people to protect your people in your communities. when you do that like this, the criminal-justice system can help like he said, people see the police are bad, they are no good. i used to say that a lot but now i think they are pretty cool. you need to stand up and tell the police or kill someone coming your leaders and protect your community. thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate that. thank you. [applause] there was a great statement and

i have another question for you all because one of the concerns i have is about synthetic drugs. how many of you have heard of synthetic drugs? okay. how many of you have synthetic drugs or have seen a synthetic drugs in your community? okay. so what we're talking about a slight bath salts. here's the deal with the synthetic drugs. this stuff with their doing is looking for people to essentially be guinea pigs because what you have is these chemicals that have the same similar properties often as methamphetamines and ecstasy but they are made in whams where essentials the deer selling this stuff and treating kids so that is to oftentimes use it as

guinea pigs so it's incredibly dangerous and we have to work together as well to get the synthetic drugs on the community's. >> i wanted to let you know it's not the youth fall to. it either has to come from their families and with families they come from. naturally, sometimes on our reservations our families are not a real family. you know what i mean, and our families are not perfect. some of our families that come from preservation are basically broken. there's nobody there to support them. we have numerous high school dropouts, numerous teenage pregnancies and numerous i don't know how you call it but under age people that drink and i see

where you're coming from but i don't like the fact our reservation is getting looked at data to read just from the broken families and whatever and it's not the youth fault maybe if our reservation had families that were put together may be our reservation with and be like that. >> let me ask a question because the was powerful and important. what can we do? because i think you're right in a lot of ways. the answers start with families. we can build up from their. so absolutely what can we do working together to help strengthen families and places? >> i'd like to see families -- we have youth summits and stuff on our reservations and that's where we try to have them come

together but there is no way they come together unless they are blamed. if there's something going on our money involved or something. it's just not right. i want to youth to come together as a reservation to show them what we are about to read if i could live with at least try to halt all of the kids and there's more out there than just the reservation. there is more out there than just where you're at. there was millions of kids that want to come with us on this trip but was sad for us to say that they couldn't and that's what they think is just because they can't come there's nothing to do in their life and would be nice some of the communities i'm not trying to say all but some of the communities on the reservation help we get the people of the community of the are not doing anything for the

reservation and it's hard to see everybody suffer from their community -- a community will be doing something like going to the movies, cleaning up yards, cleaning up communities and the other chairman monty doing anything. they just sit there and try to represent the community there from and i want to let the tried know if they want to run for a community they've got to be there for their people because some of our community representatives don't do nothing and it's kind of sad. thank you. >> no, thank you. here is my hope is that oftentimes when i want to hear about what is coming on of reservation in rosebud fact of the matter is i don't talk to the tribal council to try to figure that out any more.

i come and talk to the high schools, the elders because that is oftentimes when you get the sense of what is going on and i appreciate what you've told me today. thank you. [applause] >> my name is lawrence st. clair from washington monument. - one of the highest rated for crimes and we got a really bad ret for that. i think that is not true. it's because we are federal the of course when people get prosecuted they go to the federal prison and i just had a question. i would like to know more about the program you had for the tribe regarding their youth not

going into the federal system when they do commit crimes sometimes it is first the tribal court because honestly, truthfully, i have many relatives that have gone to federal penitentiaries for killing someone to assaulting people and i have a lot of close family members that are felons and it's sad because to vote some people cannot get jobs. you know, you are doomed from the start basically when you are in the system you stay in the system for life. >> great question. i'm going to talk about juvenile is but also with the colts because it goes hand in hand. everybody heard of the tribal law and order act. o.k. so you will hear a lot about that i would imagine

during this week. one thing the act does is allows tribal courts when they hire lawyers. so i hope some of you all decide that you want to become lawyers because when a tribal court high years them as their prosecutors as their public defenders and other judges than tribes can go from sentencing people only for one year to up to three years. so that means is tribes will have greater sovereignty, greater control over the law enforcement in their communities so you will in the long term have fewer cases that go to italy. you would be able to have more cases that stay with the tribe and its the same principle we have with the juvenile program and that there are some crimes that can and should stay within the tribe instead of going federal we think that's good for

the entire community but one thing to take back is a tried has to have lawyers and public defenders and what i know from my office is because we have three new tribally enrolled attorneys working in my office so some of the best young lawyers in the country are native americans and i hope that we see some. [applause] i live on the chyba of maffei and california but i am enrolled as a walker and my children are enrolled in north dakota. one of the things the young lady was talking about in the back is a lot of what our kids don't

understand or don't know about because of our history isn't taught in the traditional public school and what i'm talking about is the historical trauma, the intergenerational trauma that your grandparents and possibly some of your parents went through during the boarding school era termination assimilation relocation and to tap into the american people and i see a lot on the communities on the reservation is that confusion and lack of understanding of what happens of why their parents may be don't hug you or why as a child your pen and was sitting outside of the bar taking care of their younger siblings while their parents were in the bar drinking and a lot of people don't understand why those things are the way they are and why our communities suffer poverty and high rates of victimization and violence and things like that.

as you are here remember you are learning about such things as a tribal law and order act, the violence against women act and how that pertains to the country today and what you can do to change these things by asking these questions and inquiring about the things they call best practice programs for your community that you can directly to come and it's what they always say. you are making the change. you are making the difference. my parents went to boarding school. my parents' parents were killed as they were marked to a place called church hill and in still the to not speak their language. i know a lot alcoholic elders who drink just to forget the memory of being in the boarding school and who refuse to speak their language and refuse to even teach their children their language so there's a lot of things that recalls.

but we are still here through everything that public policy has enacted and our people we are still here and that is something to be thankful for and remember. because my parents survived by can thrive today. and because i can my children can. one in three -- sorry. one and three native american women will be raped in their lifetime. i have three girls and that statistic tells me that not that they might get raped but one and three native american women will be raped in their lifetime. that means the majority of us that we got to think is this today is it going to happen? am i going to get raped today? for the most of us we have been. but the thing i always remember is we are still here and we love our communities and despite

being here coming you show such leadership and hope for tomorrow so i'm thankful to be here and i'm thankful our people survived and i can speak my language and that our culture is rich and deep and we are doing all we can to preserve it and whatever the government can do for public policy to make right the wrongs that have been done in the test i think that's great so i am encouraged to be here today. >> thank you. [applause] >> i have a question for you. recently south dakota obviously has been in the media quite a bit and, you know, i feel for

what the young lady here was saying and giving the perspective what's coming on in the community. i watched show on abc and the network just recently and it's kind of sad to see the communities calling apart as they are. i want to know what's being done to help the people in those communities with the ha and unlimited in high teen pregnancy rate and everything like that. i think we have a huge crisis right now and i just want to know what is being done about that. >> those from south dakota can tell you we had a crisis on our hands long before it was on tv. the fact of the matter is we do have in many of our communities 70, 80% unemployment, alcohol rates, drug use rates could go through the roof and i wish i had a silver bullet to be able to say look this is what we're

doing that's when to turn everything around. i think what we heard earlier the fact of the matter is oftentimes it starts with families. i think that is critically important. but also when we are talking about unemployment. white we have unemployment? the reason we have unemployment as we don't have enough businesses in places like rosebud and pine ridge moving in. why don't we have the business is moving in? a lot of times it's because private business feels like mine investment wouldn't be safe on a place like pine ridge or rosebud. what we need to do in my mind when we talk about public safety in the communities it's about keeping people safe but it's also about having a safe environment so businesses can start coming into our communities so that the start creating jobs in our communities i think that is incredibly important. we've done a lot in terms of investing money into alcohol

rehabilitation programs, reentry programs by your right we need more business is coming in so that there are more jobs for people in our communities and what we can do is make communities aver said businesses are more willing to come into our communities and the good news is in a place like self dakota what i heard when i started the job three years ago native americans throughout the code as if you know what, i feel like and a second-class citizen because i needed american. i feel like i get a second class form of public safety and the communities of people said why don't you start prosecuting more cases so on pine ridge and the last year we increased prosecution by 40% on rosebud in the last three years we've increased prosecution by 78% and what that means is people start feeling more comfortable coming forward saying look the person

on the street is beating their wives or this person is using drugs in my community because they feel like they are starting to feel like there will be results and that's how we can keep communities safer and get more business is a long run to come into our communities. good question. one more. i don't want to pick them though someone else gets to pick them. >> my question is what can we do as you fifth hour tribal council or tribal police don't want the adults accountable for using or selling the drugs and who can we get to for help? >> are you in new mexico? where are you from? >> washington state.

>> you know, that's a really good question. what do you do if you feel like the police are not listening? let's talk afterwards. i can get information and find somebody to get you in contact with who you can visit with about your concerns. because hopefully, you know, that is the job of our police and tribal council. if you feel like they are not doing a good job in terms of keeping your communities, we can visit about that but i have good options for you if you like the police aren't doing their job. a good question. think you guys. i appreciate it. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> okay the next panel is right now we have two lovely young women who are from indian countries and this panel is our indian country representatives working within the administration. we want to give you a chance to talk to them and get a little words of the device also. the first presenter this morning is going to be lillian sparks. she currently is the commissioner of the administration of native americans administration for children and families and with that program is, she will go into greater detail, what tribes across the country and organizations that apply for grants that actually help us deal with promoting a were language or our economic development, and she is very instrumental in learning and runs that program and allows us

to have those resources to help in the community. let me give you a little bit of what i know. i'm not going to read her biography but i know -- we are our own families because it comes from our tribal communities and this is how we survive in the urban setting like washington, d.c.. i met lillian out of law school and she was the most dynamic, beautiful, well spoken young lady. she actually worked on our cultural protection program. she worked for the religious protection and health care issues and use related issues. from there she continued to grow, issues director rector of

the -- this administration they're recruited her to be the mid americans, so as to know, she's also one of the. with that i would like to go ahead and let lillian give her presentation and then we will hear from yvette and then open up for questions and. >> good morning everyone. [inaudible] good morning to all of you. i greet you in my language. i may render of the rosebud tribe. feel free to clap. [applause] and also african-american. i grew up in maryland which is where my father is come and my

mother obviously from south dakota. i had a really interesting experience is getting to where i am to be the commissioner. i want to give you a little bit about my background and tell you how i got to this position and tell you more about what we are doing because i just always find it more interesting and easy to relate it yourself and other person's shoes when you know where they come from. growing up in maryland was my parents and my younger sister and a rotating schedule of cousins that can from south dakota every year that lived with us for six months or 18 months or two years or pretty much their entire lives and was interesting growing up and my mom made sure she kept us all grounded in our culture and that we know who we are and we are familiar with our traditions and we knew who our relatives were back in south dakota, we made trips annually to visit those

relatives and participate in ceremonies and we got a chance to really understand how lucky we had it living where we were and what we considered our challenges were really minor considered to what the of their barriers and challenges relatives of ours were facing on a daily basis. and growing up in that environment, my parents made it very clear that we were expected to go to college. both of my parents met in college. i worked the come on worked for indian education in schools and then the federal government and my dad was a social worker at baltimore city. they made it very clear early on we were expected to go to college but my senior year i had different ideas and i thought i would probably take a year off and may be joined the dance theater which was a big deal back when i was in high school and then go to college until my parents pretty much handed the the application and said you

have a full scholarship to morgan state, which is my local school in baltimore. you start in three weeks, orientation is on sunday. pack your bags. so that is pretty much how i started going to school and because i had that family support that encouraged me and pushed me and created these high expectations. from there studied electrical engineering for three years before i really -- for i was frustrated enough to change to political science even the white tiemann on an engineering degree it wasn't my passion and i didn't enjoy it. i spent many evenings a my door more upset, not sure how wires went to make it to class or do the cellmark and so my mom said you just have to look into your heart and see what it is you really want to do. the other opportunities have been provided that it's up to

you to tickets advantage of that. >> i changed my major to political science and then graduated and applied to a bunch of law schools on the east coast because i knew i wanted to stay on the east coast and got except in washington, d.c. which is here about 45 minutes to an hour away from baltimore so when i came to georgetown it was a different environment from what i was used to. morgan state university is a black college and university and a really small school so it's something that would be kids what trouble university in your own community and going to georgetown where we had people from not just the united states but all over the world coming and attending the school the very prestigious families. i had a sons and daughters of centers to the two senators, business leaders, business

owners and sitting in that room and looking around with every seat filled to capacity i wonder how did i end up in this room with of these people? i knew nothing of what it was to be an indian some. just as much as every other person. i worked hard. i studied. i knew what i wanted to do in terms of helping my communities. and i knew this was one avenue for me to be able to do that. the next three years i've learned a lot from my peers and professors and i took advantage of the ephriam version eight that came across. a new program or something those

extra at georgetown i couldn't apply to that. i am a full screen debut work on a participate in the georgetown law clinic program launched. i participate in that with 12 of my peers sitting with my professors who actually wrote a large piece who had worked on appropriations committee as chief of staff whose spouses fit on the supreme court. in the process i shall love with policy and how to be able to do

work for american indians come and live hawaii. so, taking that clinic really opened my eyes to what i wanted to do, and as jackie mentioned. we went to a different community, and learned about tribes i have never heard of previously and learned about some of their use were going through. i was coming upon the end of my last journal of law school, coming upon my. various tribal leaders were coming up and there was a special and speaking on my

behalf. she will be representing all of us. she will be taking on our burden and channing. her mom is translating for me in terms of what was being said. and then my grandmother came up and she got on the microphone and then she was speaking inviting the older women to come up where we were. while she was doing that she was hiding their faces and then my mom was doing that and she said they are going to carry your burden for you. they are wiping their tears away from you. the tears you'll cry and heartache while you figure out what you are going to be doing while you are in washington, d.c. we i don't have a job i don't know if i'm going to be in washington, d.c.. she said you will figured out it

will happen for you. no sooner than that, graduate up all school studied for the bar. i was probably one of the very few of my entire classmates that didn't have a six-figure job waiting when they took the ball the very next day. but that's okay because i had my support from my family and our faith in our creator to make sure that i was going to be okay. and so, i took the law are. it is an exhausting and immensely training experience. that friday i went to a native american bar association here in d.c.. there was one of the great things. in fact jackie mentioned we have a really small but supportive community of natives in washington, d.c. that you only know what someone else is doing.

the long and they knew her daughter was credited in law school so they told her to invite me to this meeting because there was going to be a meeting of indian attorney said that on a monthly basis to it i went and someone recognized and introduced me and said she just graduated from law school. i don't have a job lined up yet. >> make sure to send your e-mail to everyone and they will help you figure about. before the meeting was over someone said to me i think that the national congress of american indians was hiring and you should find out what position it is. the was friday. that saturday i went to the powwow and i met jackie johnston, who. we exchanged contact information and that monday i called her. that wendy she interviewed me and that friday she hired me. that tells you how quickly things can turn around if you don't have that belief, bearing.

if you also take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. my dad could have told me about the meeting and i would have so i don't want to drive out there. i just don't feel like that i knew that wasn't going to help me. i could've listened to the. just shy and kept going and not said anything. someone could of pointed out jackie and i would have said i will talk to her and never made it over there. she could have given her number and i would have never called. these are things that happen because they were supposed to happen but it also took advantage of the opportunity. i knew some of these things only happen once in a lifetime and i knew it was said to me to grasp a hold of it and take it for all of its worth. making less than half, probably a quarter of what my counterparts were making the experiences are priceless.

i got enough for kennedy to spend weeks at a time in geneva switzerland working on the u.n. declaration for the rights of indigenous people. i got the chance to do all for the indian country again and meet with tribal leaders, said in meetings with them but i got a chance to write testimony from a very important hearing on sacred specially these programs for indians and i got along the on the hill or advocate on the health. i got to do education sessions and saw three things and round tables. i got my own portfolio right away. what my counterparts in law school were stuck in the legal trying to find the evidence and hand it back off. the experiences were invaluable to the education association and i was in my 20s at that time and i didn't think i was ready so one of my co-workers at a time interested said you know what

is. if someone asks you to do something you have to do that and she said if you have someone asking you to apply for that job you should submit your resume that doesn't mean eight you should send yours because they see something in you and you know how it is an andean countries sometimes people see it before you see it yourself. i listened to what she said and i took advantage of that and i got a chance to work with a really great organization working on important policy for in the education and native languages which led me to where i am now which is the commissioner but we do a lot exciting work on the service side for health and human services. so he was my colleague at the department where she's the director of indian health service and she oversees all of the hafed activities and by her counterpart in hhs and together

we walk in the room and people don't often know whether to smile or cry because they don't know if we are there to praise them or let them know what is our needs are but we are able to make an effective change in policy on behalf of the indian country. when i saw all of you stand at that you knew about your native languages that made my heart beat because that is a lot of the work we do in ana to read a lot our community driven. they have to derive from the community and have the support from the community has an important responsibility to go home and organized during this counity and say we want this type of program in our community. we won the funding to do this and we want our tribes applied for this. when we see that support.

i'm happy to visit with all of you. i'm happy to share more information about how to get funding in your community. to take this information home and share it because if you leave it in washington, d.c. it's for you but if you take disinformation home that you are learning and sharing it with your sisters or friends or cousins and your friends. you make the impact that we expect you to make. my time is up but there will be. [applause] >> thank you come lillian for sharing your story. now i would like to introduce

another woman doctor. that means that she is responsible for all of our indian programs across the nation about a $4 billion nationwide care delivery. huge responsibility but let me tell you how wino tenet i met yvette working in arizona at arizonan university of arizona. she has led a group that was doing research and disease in particular. she became an adviser to assist the policy research center to

help us move more and help the policy needful wander term. she worked on recruiting students to go to the universities and. she received her doctorate to agree, her medical degree from harvard medical school. christine command and another from harvard school of public health. so she carries. to move in a direction she also has written and published in effect why did she do that was the promise to keep the policy for american indians and in the 21st century. so she clearly was a person that was positioned in her place to leave the indian health for in

the increase. [applause] >> good morning everybody. all right. it's so great to have the chance to spend time with you today. i saw the agenda. angeles. i wish i could steal the whole time. sounds like you're going to have agreed week. anyway, my name is dr. dr. roubideaux. i grew up in south dakota. my father grew up on the rosebud reservation and he was one of the first american indian lawyers in south dakota so all of my life there is pressure for me to be a lawyer. i build on that. but my mother is part standing

rock. she grew up on that reservation and she was a nurse. so this kids grew up there a little bit but mostly in rapid city because anybody from a big city? and the dread of the indian health service to read some of you have to know about that, who knows about the indian health service packs all right. so how many of you have waited a long time and indian health service? how many of you have heard your relative complain about the indian health service? how many of you don't want to have to ever go there again? so, now you understand when the director of the indian health

service and not everybody likes the indian health service but today i want to tell you what you're doing to improve it and telling and it to be the director of the indian health service i have to tell you a funny story. i was in tucson being a professor teaching and all that and i got a phone call the administration president was asking me to be the director of the indian health service. i thought i don't know. if i were to move from tucson to washington, d.c. my mama have to go along with me because i will take care of her so i went into the living room where my mother was sitting and i said they just called. they want me to be part of the obama administration in the indian health service would do

you think and she looked up at me with a look like this and said well why would you want to do that? [laughter] like a great. i have to convince her but she finally agreed to go along so i've been the director for about three years and fewer to ask me when i was sitting in your place if there would be the director of the indian health service and coley would have laughed but i had a grandmother kept saying you're going to go and be the verdict of the indian health service and i just thought i was crazy at the time. it was crazy because i wasn't really interested in health of the time. when i was in high school i was a nerve. how many of you will let met? be proud. prowled nerds. okay. i was in the band. it gets worse. how many were in the band?

how many of your indy 500 bate? okay that's really the nerds. be crawled. all right. so everybody thought i kind of would be a lawyer because my dad was a awyer, i was good at d debate. i was pretty good in high school and then my grand mother got sick and i heard she didn't get the greatest care. ..

i mentioned, well, you know, i think i want to be a doctor, and my parents were, like, what? they thought i was going to be a lawyer. i mentioned it to my grandmother, and she was like, oh, yeah, be a doctor and fix this hospital here,ñjxand i was like, yeah, whatever, sure. i gist want to be a doctor. i had to decide where to go to college, and my mother said go to a big school out east like

harvard or yale. i don't know about that. i was thinking local schools. i had good grades,ñi did well on the test, and i applied, and i got in. it was a huge shock. i went to college at harvard which was a lot of fun. there were a lot of kids like me there. it was people from all over -- they tend to select ureally diverse class, and then i majored in biology, and i still played the clarinet with the band. he was in the harvard band. couldn't give that up. >> [inaudible] >> i know. i'm definitely a bigger nerd than lillian, absolutely, and although she's kind of a nerd anyway, then i decided to go to med school, harvard medical school, it was hard, but i was glad i went there, and i decided to go into internal medicine. internal medicine is when you're an adult doctor so you take care of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, that kind of thing, and then i did)çvç my residency trag

for three years in boston, and then it was time to go pay off my scholarship.

>> we don't have enough money to pay for all of the health care. we don't -- our budget, although it's $4.3 billion, it's still not enough. the tribes actually think we need $26 billion, but we only have $4.3 billion. that's why it's hard to get your referrals pay for. people complain they are not getting the care. i thought, well, maybe rather than being a doctor out in the clinic, i could try to do something more, and then i got more training, and i realized i wanted to be a researcher to help find all of the data, to help prove what the need was, and so i did work on diabetes. how many of you know somebody with diabetes? yeah. diabetes is a huge problem for american indians and alaska natives with the highest rates in the world. diabetes is a problem of high blood sugar, but you can prevent it. i worked on some programs that show you can prevent diabetes

with trying to avoid being overweight or obese, being active, and trying not to eat so much. the portion sizes people eat these days are bigger than they need to be. trying to teach people in our communities, well, you know, actually, when we were more traditional, we were more healthy. if you think about it, our an sees -- ancestors, grandfathers and grandmothers were moving more. they used to eat smaller portions of food. they used to eat more healthy foods like, you know, fruits and grains and lean meats and things like that. we did not have database in american indian communities hardly at all back 100 years ago, but now you can see everybody has it. we need to get back to some of our healthier ways of living in our culture to try to understand

how to take care of the bodies. i did work on diabetes prevention programs and research related to quality, diabetes care, and i was at the university of arizona in tucson for 11 year, and i also used to recruit students into health professions, but then i got to call to come and be the directer of the indian health service, and so what we're trying to do in the indian health service the last few years is admit we have a problem. you know how they say the first step is to say you have a problem? well, we need to admit we have a problem, and we need to change and improve. we've been working on trying to have a better relationship with the tribes because the thing is, and you've probably seen this, if you're a doctor, you can do all of the right things in the exam room. examine the patient, diagnose what's going on, and give them the right pills, but the minute that patient walks out the door,

all heck can go wrong because a patient lives within a family, and a family within a community, and if the family is sick or if the community is sick, then that patient has a hard chance of trying to be well. i really feel like the indian health services is one piece of the communities getting healthy, but we also have to partner with our tribes because they make a lot of choices about things that affect the health of our communitities, and 10 i actually spent a lot of my time talking with tribes, hearing their input, working on solutions to the hardest problems because we really need to have our communities and partnerships. how can a person with diabetes eat healthy if you go to the local store and there's no vegetables or fruits or they are all, you know, rotted? it's easier to buy potato chips

or it's easier to buy, you know, greecey foods so it's really important to partier with tribings. i do a lot of work with tribes and partner and talk with them. the other thing we're doing is try to improve the business of the indian health service to make it so you don't have to wait so long, to make sure we're spending the money right, to make sure we're, you know, rewarding good employees and disciplining those who are not doing so well, and then we're also trying to improve the quality of care, and that's related to making sure our doctors have the best up-to-date information and using technology. i see you out there with your iphones and cameras and stuff like that. we didn't have those back when i was a doctor. i actually wrote on paper records back then, but now we have an electronic record system, and so now we can do everything by computer, even the x-rays, and so that's pretty

great. we're working on actually trying to beef up the electronic things in our clinics to make them more modern, and then finally, i'm trying to communicate more about what we're doing in the indian health service to change and improve. how many of you have seen the ihs director's blog? anybody? no? well, i want you to go to www.ihs.gov. you're imoing to see a picture -- you're going to see a picture of me on the left upper hand side, and it says "blog". click on "blog," and you can see pictures of meetings and people we are meeting with and what we're doing. you can see where our facilities are located. we're located in 35 states, and there's over 600 hospitals and clinics. we really are trying to work to change and improve the indian health service. we've made progress, but we have a long way to go.

if it was easy to fix the indian health service, someone would have done it a long time ago, but i think we're on the right track starting on a good footing, and at least people are admitting we need to change and improve, and people are starting to help us do that. anyway, i ended up being the director of the indian health service, but i think it's actually a good time. we have a lot of support. president obama has said to me and to others that the indian health service is a priority. we've got increases in our budget the last four years when nobody else has. so it's been great to have the support of the administration, and our boss, secretary sebelius from the department of health and human services has been supportive, and so i'll be anxious to hear your questions, and i hope that many of you will think about maybe a health career as you get and think about what you're going to do in the future.

maybe you'll be doctors in the future or nurses or pharmacists or x-ray techs or work in our clinics or maybe you'll be a tribal leader that works really closely with the indian health service and help us improve health in our communities. thank you very much. >> thank you. i've heard both women speak many times, and this has been one of the most interesting because we heard your perm stories. i want to thank you for opening up and sharing that with the youth. now is the time to ask some questions, and i'm sure they'll take any question from you so raise your hands. we have a microphone ready to go. there's a question here in the front, and then is anybody else up there ready for the next question? behind -- over here. go ahead.

>> [inaudible] i'm from the rose bud reservation too. my question is about suicide prevention in the communities. growing up, my freshman year of high school i remember my peers probably a suicide every six to eight weeks, and i was 14 at the time, and there were people younger than me committing suicide, and it was really traumatic for a lot of students, and to be honest, like, the suicide rates have not changed that much. for a lot of us, like, it's easy for me to talk about suicide now because i'm so used to it. it's sad, but i think a lot of youth are numb in the communities with talking about it, and with accepting it. when it's someone close, it's difficult, but when it's, like, you hear about someone committing suicide in your community, like, it's normal, and it shouldn't be that way, and 10 my question is if there's a lot of preventative attempts,

but they do noting the for cultural differences. many programsing the for the differences find it difficult to partner with the psych psycholol aspects of it. anything ihs or the department of health and human services in general is doing to help combat these statistics and do more preventative measures with partnering the medical side of it with the cultural community side of it? >> great. thank you for your question. suicide is such an unbelievably sad and tragic thing that's happening in our communities, and the worst part is it's preventable, but there's so many forces that are working against us in this area and that's why it's a big challenge, but i do know that there are a lot of programs put in place that do look at both the medical and start at the spiritual and the

community-type of activities that need to happen. the first is that if you look at federal agencies, we take is seriously, and we've been trying to partner together to work on what some of the solutions are so last year the department of interior and department of health and human services like samsa and the indian health service did 11 listening sessions around the country to talk about with communities about what are some things that we can do to prevent that, and that included sessions with youth that was important for us to hear the voices of youth. we held action summits, and what we realized is there's a lot of programs around the country that already are doing a great job of sort of partnering with health the community and the tribes, but it's a matter of making sure we get the information out to people so they know about it and know that it's happening.

indian health service also has a funding program called the methamphetamine and suicide preventative initiative. we have over 100 programs funded. they are doing what you are talking about. they are run by communities and the local hospitals or health programs with the job to find innovative ways to address this problem of suicide. this is something where it's frustrating with us, and with the indian health service often we don't see the kids. they don't come into us. they might, but a lot of times we just hear about it later on the places to intervene are in schools, are in community events, and a lot of other places where kids go. nobodiments to go to the indian health service so if we have to

find kids to talk with them about how to help them be strong and to work with them, there's a lot of innovative things we need to do in communities and different sites to go to. i know some of our programs are doing a great job, and certainly we're a part of the response when suicides happen, but we take this seriously, and we know it's a top priority of tribes, and we really have been trying to put resources and effort behind trying to deal with some of these issues. [applause] >> before i take the next question, i wanted to remind you that this afternoon one of your two choices, you get to choose between a bunch of sessions this afternoon, one's called save a life, and that session is dealing with what you can do to be able to help with suicide prfertion in your communities. next question back here, and then the lady in the red. >> good morning, dr. yvette.

i too, am from rose bud, but we've had a lot of cancer, a lot of cancer in rose bud, and we know there's no money to help with the radiation and so our people are kind of just dying of cancer, but i'd like to know is it in the water? >> well, you know, i get that question a lot. communities are noticing that the rates of cancer are going up. it used to be american indians and alaska natives had less cancer than the rest of the country, but now it seems like you are hearing stories of people who are getting cancer, and i know it's scary for people in the indian communities. what are causes of cancer? well, it turns out the thing that everybody thinks about first is environmental exposures like water and contamination and radiation and those things.

they can cause cancer, and it's worthwhile to talk with the tribe whether they investigated those things, but actually know the more important or common causes of cancer are the things we see every single day. smoking. smoking is a big cause of cancer, and it's preventable, and so, please, if you don't ever smoke, and you smoke now, do what you can to not smoke because it causes cancer, and people do die from it. the other thing that people don't realize one of the top causes of cancer is overweight and obesity. being overweight and obese is one of the most common causes of cancer. that's why it's important to be active and try to eat healthy

because cancer can be caused by that. it's important to think of what the causes of cancer could be. if you're worried about environmental exposure, talk with the tribe and see if these tested the water and that sort of thing, but i also encourage people to learn more about all of the causes of cancer including things like obesity, including smoking and those things because those are preventable, and as the number of people with obesity goes up, we'll see increased cancer as well. talk with the tribe, see if they tested the water and that sort of thing. go to the national cancer institute, nci it's called. if you put in national cancer institute in a serge engine or "cancer risk factors," you can see what the risk factors are for cancer to help you know what to do to protect yourself and to

prevent cancer in the future so thank you. >> do you want to speak about wellness programs you funded in the tribal community wellness programs? >> sure. we actually provide funding for tribes to do that type of testing and monitoring of waste water and do testing of the regulatory enhancement grants, and it's been very successful, especially in a lot of the rural and remote communities, and we also fund a lot of health related activities, and, again, they have to be designed, developed, and driven by the community, but a lot has to do with patient navigators or patient advocates to help elders or those without experience working within health systems to go and get testing, to make sure

they do follow-ups at home, and to also, we do a lot of work of work on healthy eating, let's move initiatives, obesity prevention under the social development strategy. we fund quite a few organic and traditional forms and gardens and as well as help communities design nutritional health plans for their members. >> thank you. next question. >> good morning. i'm a middle schoolteacher on the sioux reservation. my question is for dr. here, and talking about suicide, we have a high suicide rates among addless sents right here, this age group, and part of being a teacher is also part of being a parent and that person that my

students come to when they have problems so when this past year, we've had quite a few students who have had suicide attempts, thank god they were not successful, but with ihs, they go to the behavior health, and you mentioned that, you know, there's truly not enough funding, but it is written in our treaty that we received the health care, and, you know, how do we try to reach out to the youth, you know, that come to us, and we got to try to help them and take them to ihs and refer them to ihs, and then they get to ihs, and they meet with the psychologist or the behavioral health people for 10 minute, and then send them off to another behavioral clinic where they are there for a day, and then they are sent back home. they are not receiving the adequate help that they need, and then their suicide attempt becomes a point to where they

take their own life. we're really truly not helping them. how can communities reach out more to them to assure them they will get the help they need? >> well thank you for the question, and i know it's frustrating sometimes when you see kids that fall through the cracks or don't get care they need, and we want to know when that happens, and we want you to talk and work with our local behavioral health programs. the issues of suicide relate to a lot of things, and sometimes the solution is that maybe a kid is depressed or maybe a kid has a bhaiferl health or psychological issue that needs to be addressed, and so what the indian health service offers in that case is working with a psychologist for councilling, maybe getting medication for

some of those things, and then regularly trying to help the students understand why they have the feelings they have, but i think it's important to understand that the school has a great role there to help with kids on a day-to-day basis. the local community centers have a great role to help kids also. the local clubs that are available there, and so we really feel like, you know, the solution to the problem in our communities doesn't lie with one agency, but partnerships. i would definitely encourage -- it means the whole community has to come together, and so if you are having trouble with the local behavioral health program or you see things you don't like, i encourage you to talk with the directors to see if you

can make improvements in that. sometimes the staff have gone to the schools and done sessions, but it's everybody in the community to work together to try to develop a network of support for the students so that they can find someone to go to when in need whether it's the hospital, the school, the tribe, or the community and that sort of thing. we have to work better together 6789 if -- if you're having problems with the local ihs, go say i saw me at a conference and she recommended i come over and talk with you all, and the sad part about indian health service is that we don't have enough funds to do everything, but we try to do as much as we can, and i know there's caring people there that work there that want to help. i encourage you to talk with them. it's going to take all of us and all of our efforts together to try to help the students to help

them feel safe, secure, and to know there's someone they can go to talk to when they have a problem or an issue, and whether it's the indian health service or local school or local tribe or local clubs, i think it's -- and i think students can help us by giving us feedback about, you know, if you're having a problem or a friend has a problem, how can we help you? i think that that would help a lot as well, and so i encourage you to talk with the local ihs and see how maybe they can be more helpful. >> great, there's a question in the back. >> i'm ramona and i'm from montana, and i'ms boys and girls club officer working on the ihs direct r -- director on a daily basis, and you said to go back to the tribal government to ask them

what to do about it if testing was done, but i guess my question is how come -- i know we're underfunded through ihs, but how come they can't be in the process to hire an epidemiologist to investigate why carps is rampant in our communities? >> well, actually, that is a available. we have in the service funding 12 epidemiology centers, one in each ihs area. you're in the billings area? the train could request that an epidemiologist come out and do the investigation and see. the indian health service has programs to do those kinds of investigations. you're from an interesting tribe because your tribe took over the management of the entire health program in your community so the way those agreements work is ihs is here to help, but we leave

the decisions to the tribe, but we are are available for technical assistance and support, but you might want to ask about the montana-wyoming tribal leaders committee, and i believe it's also associated with the epidemiology center out there, and that he could send someone without to do an investigation. >> okay. i was saying that because it's held dear to my heart about cancer because i'm a cancer survivor myself. [applause] >> a young gentleman here and there's another question up there. i'm going to also ask lillian to talk about the language and the language programs, and i know you funded a lot of those, if you maybe could highlight some examples.

>> member of the -- i guess i was just going to follow-up quick on a couple of the women's about the suicide epidemic, and i have a question for lillian. real quick. we have an organization on our tribe, we have this suicide epidemic starting in 1987, and that's a time, a gruesome time and sad. a group of leaders around my age at the time came together to organize the group, and we're now the unity council. there's a lot of people part of unity here, but from that time, 1987 until now, there's never been a suicide under the age of 18. so, you know, every -- we have four conferences every year. we always, you know, we push towards suicide prevention for the underage, you know, like my

age and whatnot, but right now, we're working on our own, you know,s, but i'd like to get out to you guys and work with you guys or organize something with what we're doing. sorry. i think it's broken. [laughter] >> i think it would be a good time, especially with peers, your same age getting out together, and, you know, that's a great prevention, you know, having peer mentorship is great, and we're also working on a project this year. it's a big project. my question for lillian. the funding you do for language, we're not -- the and i was talking to the other people in the states, and we're working on

getting a 501c3 to get funding, and i was not too sure because, you know, the tribal funding, can only be under the tribe. i was wondering is there any way, you know, we could work? >> sure. that's a great question. to be eligible, you can be a federally recognized tribe, a state recognized tribe, innative non-profit organization meaning that your board of directors has to be majority native american, pacific island, and so we have a really broad range of eligibility which is great. if you form your 0501c3 and majority of your board members which govern your organization are native american from your community, then we would be able to fund you. up next on c-span2, a

conversation on this week's agenda in congress with paul kane of the washington post, and then the political commentator on women and the conservative movement. later, a look at ways to improve u.s. education. >> we have to be clear about the have many ways that we own ourselves and that we own our history, and that we make the decisions that our history is vital and special. >> the former president of college writes and comments on politics, education, and

african-american economic history. this sunday, your questions, calls, e-mails, and tweets for the author of "surviving and thriving: 365 facts in black economic history" on in-depth on c-span2's booktv. this segment of "washington journal" is 50 minutes. >> host: paul kane, congressional reporter for "the washington post," and thank you for being here. glug sure, any time. >> host: we often see a big drama unfold before they get ready to leave town. are you expecting that this time around? >> guest: not nearly as dramatic in year's past. in 2009, there was a rush to get the health care bill out of the commerce committee that went down to the last day with crazy meetings late into the night.

last year at this time we were dealing with the debt ceiling hike and all sorts of drama. this time around, they are having an election year dialing back expectations on what they are trying to pass, and they've gotten a few of the must-pass things already done this summer so looking ahead, you've got a couple of things that they are trying to get done, and on the house side, they have the competing tax plan, and the democratic plan is to extend the bush era tax cuts other than those makes under $250,000. the senate already approved that by just a couple vote margin. the house will reject that approving the republican plan to extend the tax cuts for everyone including the most wealthy. that is going dob their senate task of the week, and taking up the bill to improve the nation's

cybersecurity from computer disk hackers, and it's unclear whether they will get through the key amendments, but beneath that service, there's a couple other issues that are lurking, and the drought in the midwest and farm country has basically reeked havoc out there on their economy, and there's been a farm bill languishes in the house. there's a talk of a one year extension, a short term extension of that bill. that's probably the other must-pass item, and there's reform lurking out there and potential defaults set in by the postal service, one starting wednesday if nothing's done, but it's unclear whether there's momentum in the house to get that done. >> host: if you'd like to talk with the issues the numbers are 20 # 2737001.

republicans 202737002, and independent 2026280205. how many days left of working in washington does congress have before the election? >> guest: looking at, i think, 18 days left. this week and then they go on a 5-week break that is meant to be a work period back home and also for the republican and democratic national conventions, and then they are back in mid-september and because of a couple of different issues including jewish holidays and other planned breaks, there's just 13 days in september and early october, and at that point, the only thing left they'll be trying to do most likely is a six month extension of government funding. they are trying to work the details out now so it's ready in december when they come back, but mostly from here until election day, the focus is chasm

paining for -- campaigning for those 50-60 house races that are going to, you know, determine the majority, and 8-10 senate races that are going to determine who has the majority next year. >> host: a recent story in "national journal daily" looked at a senate proposal by roms on energy legislation. senate republicans are not pretending that new energy legislation introduced last thursday is meant for passage this congress, but g.o.p. senatorrers says it represents the legislation they would push if they were in control of the ?t -- senate in the next session. how much of this is about laying the ground work for effective messaging back home? >> guest: i would say joust about all of it. everything they are working on right now is about either messaging to try to, you know, give the people a clear choice of what they would do if given full control of washington next year, or the other side of that

is their positioning themselves for what could be an amazingly important lame duck session in which you're going to have so many issues decided in terms of taxes, the automatic spending cuts that are coming through last year's debt law like sebelius -- sequestering, and i hate saying that word. it's confusing for people. there's a lot left from that session, but right now, there's not a lot other than the short checklist i rattled off earlier. there's not a lot that they are attempting to do. >> host: paul kane, congressional reporter with the washington post. out to massachusetts where christina's an independent caller. hey. displk hi. the reason i'm calling is, you know, all i hear anymore on tv is what or how the government in the news and everybody is trying to divide the american people. it's like you all want to see us

so divided in fighting with each other. the democrats dangle carrots in front of you promising you the world, and then they barely give you the carrot. the republicans, oh, they say they fight for our rights, but then they keep their mouths shut. it's all just to get re-elected. nobody cares about us. reporters want to be the newest profit so we listen only to them, but in the end, all you are doing is trying to destroy america. it is dying. >> host: what's the solution? what would you do to change things? >> caller: a solution? get all new people term limits. you want to make a law? live with it because none of these people live with the laws. you know, nobody fights to make sure our education is the best in the world. it's the worst now, all right? we sit back, and, oh, oh, make thgs better for the teacher. what about the kids? our kids are our future, but

what -- wait, wait until the next election. wait until [laughter] after the election. what about now? >> host: christina's has a lot of anger and concern of what's happening. are you seeing congress wrestle with that? >> guest: it's really fascinating because we are in a state and quantity mying this statistically about the most conservative lawmakers are more conservative than ever, and the liberal are the most liberal than they've been in a long time. here in the capitol, there's an amazing amount of people called polarization, and that goes to her point about the way she feels people are trying to divide them. at the same time, the country itself has never been more narrowly divided. there's a good chance that the senate will end up in a 50/50 deadlock.

with whoever wins the white house having the tie breaking vote. we're at in weird point in which the closer the margins, the more narrowly divided the country is. we're almost more, people feel more polarized by it all. i think if you see the senate still retaining control by democrats and the house run by republicans, this is an issue they have to tackle next congress. i think they have to, with a newly elected president, whether it's second term for obama, first term for romney, i think there's going to have to be some sort of coming to grips with this, and reaching some compromises on big deals. >> host: there was a poll and a story with it a couple days ago reporting is uncle sam helping or hurting the economy? nearly three out of four americans want representatives to compromise to find solutions to economic problems, and they quote people who say things like

congress needs to work together. they need to work for compromise, but david reports that a vocal minority of 25% including 40% republicans, want to stand on principle regard less of gridlock that could lead to government shut down or higher federal debt. >> guest: well, that goes to talking earlier about the texas senate race, the primary is on tuesday, and there you have an old-fashioned establishment conservative in in the lieu -- lieutenant governor and there's the dynamic wing of the conservatives of the republican party, and back in late may, they had their first round of balloting with 1.5 million people voting. duhurst didn't have 50%, so under texas laws, there's a runoff system, and now they

expect 350,000 people. those 350,000 people are part of what you referred to as stand on principle, and that's why a lot of people think cruise is the favorite right now, and what you get as sort of this primaries becoming more decided by just the narrow swath of the 350,000 texasians who will -- texasans who will vote tuesday is you get a more hardened, more principled group of people on the right and on the left, and it makes that sort of bridging the divide a heck of a lot more difficult than it would be it you had more participation from all corners. >> host: another call in here, democratic caller from here in washington. hi, there. >> caller: yes. >> host: go ahead. >> caller: what i'm trying to

make is the democrats do not know how to explain this tax cut. the tax cut is for $250,000 of your income up to $250,000 of your income. you -- the tax cut, but supposed to be for everybody, but they say it's not for everybody. it's for people under $250,000. $250,000 and above get the tax cuts. can they explain this correctly? some of the guys do not know how to talk. >> guest: okay. what the caller's referring to is in shorthand, we sometimes say that the tax cuts that the democrats try to keep the tax cuts for those making 250,000 and under, and it makes it sound as if lebron james making 25 million to 30 million a year is

not going to get a tax cut, but in reality, lebron james gets a tax cut on the first $250,000 that he's making. the rest of the income would go up to 39% as it was back in the 1990s. my colleague has written about this extensively, and i think the average millionaire would see something like an $11,000-$12,000 benefit under the democratic proposal. under the republican proposal, the average millionaire sees a $70,000 benefit so it's an argument over how big of a tax cut to give the millionaires and above. >> host: a headline here "democratic tax plan may get a vote in the house," and you mentioned we may see this unfold this week. what's expected to happen? >> guest: sure. the democrats said give us a vote on the democratic bill, and

john boehner says, well, shore, we'll give you a vote, and we're going to beat it. they have 242 republicans, very few republicans expected to support the democratic plan. they are happily -- they have not officially determined it, but they expect to, among the series of options they vote on probably thursday, will be the democratic bill, and you'll see a very, what the caller, christina, did not like, you'll see a polarized votes with all the democrats voting for it and republicans voting against it. they'll knock that down before they move to passing the republican bill. >> host: paul kane, congressional reporter with the washington post is our guess. michael, arizona, republican caller. good morning. >> caller: hi. >> host: what do you have to say? >> caller: my question is what do the obama administration or the romney administration plan to do with the gas prices that

are soaring through across the america because i read an article in china they are doing program where they can find a way to reduce the gas prices. i want to know what's going to happen with the gas prices everywhere. >> guest: it's a good point. the average person sees $3.50 a gallon and that's too high. reality is up here they were bracing for $4.00 or $4.50, or $5.00. there was a price spike in january and february which was unusual because usually there's a price hit that comes in the summer, summer driving. that came early, and that's stoked a lot of fears that you'd see gas prices soaring. the reality is that there's been an increase in output, and slowly but surely the price's come down and flattened out in

the mid $3.range. it's taken the range out of the sails of republicans that wanted to make this is central issue. you don't hear them talking nearly as much about keystone pipeline which was a real focus for them last fall and early winter about building that pipeline. i think by the convention, you'll see the return to that because it's what they consider a really good issue that up dependent voter -- independent voters will be framing them their votes on in the fall. we'll see how prices go up or down in the weeks before the election and whether that resinates with the voters. >> host: the headline, the house ready to take up drought relief and legislation to provide disaster assistance would extend the farm bill. the house under pressure to extend relief. the draught hit farmer and ranchers before congress hit summer recess is expected legislation this week to revive

several expired disaster assistance programs. chances they go anywhere? >> guest: this is the one piece of legislation that moved from the back burner to the front burner because of drought relief. initially, senate passed a bill that was going to save between $23 billion-$30 billion, and the house was going to move the bill through committee, and this was part of the idea where they were trying to get positioning for the fall in a lame duck session after the election, and it was about bidding about whose bill saves more and be able to have that in reserve as they go through these talks on taxes and the automatic spending cuts, but instead this draught has just really hit the midwest, and both for economic reasons and really genuinely trying to help the farms and political reasons and the midwest is such a key battle

ground in both senate races, house races, and the presidential. they decided they have to do something rather than waiting for the fall and i think you're going to see action on this this week, and, you know, the senate could, in turn, approve it, and you would at least have that issue lifted for a year, and there's relief to farmers in the midwest right away. >> host: looking at numbers in the story. there's disaster assistance for farmers with fish and trees at $621 million stremped out over -- stretched out over ten years paid in reductions in conservation programs. house leaders reluck at that particular time to bring a new farm bill to the floor because of concerns it would go down as an embarrassing defeat and g.o.p. conservatives object to the cost with 80% of the cost going top food stamp program that helps feed some 46 million people.

other issues coming into play here as well. >> guest: as often has happened in the last 18 months, you have a hard line group of republican conservatives who really do not want to see any deficit growth, and the fight on these issues often becomes how do you pay for it? how do you have an offsetting cut to finance this legislation? the food stamp issue befuddled the public a lot and lawmakers too. people don't realize so much of the usda and what the usda does is administering the foot stamp program, and it's an automatic program you see when the economy is hard hit. there's a lot of unemployment. there's just growth in the stepping on food stamps, and that has really angered a lot of the most fiscally conservative members of the caucus, republican caucus. >> host: ben joins us from new

york on our independent line. hi, ben. >> caller: hi, good morning. thanks for taking my call. >> host: good morning. >> caller: last week i think or perhaps the week before, there was a bill introducedded by representative paul to audit the fed, and i'm wondering if any action was taken, if you know how the vote went, and where the white house stood on that? >> guest: yes. that bill passed on i believe thursday afternoon. a colleague of mine from cnn coined the phrase that dr. no finally got a yes. he has, ron paul has been pushing the bill to audit the fed for quite some time, and it did pass the house by a fairly partisan vote. i don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head. his son, rand paul, the senator from kentucky, is pushing the bill in the senate, but as of now, it's sort of on an outlier

issue for the senate and it's probably not going to receive a vote there nlings senator paul has been pretty tough in his fights so far so he may try to get a vote on it as an amendment to one the bills that they have to tackle in the next two to three months. >> host: from fox news, final vote was 327-98, and lost in the roifl risk factors was the -- rivalry was that eight democrats voted against it. >> guest: i stand corrected. that was a big win for dr. paul. it was, you know, probably one of his most important legislative victories so far. now, will it become law? probably not, but the issue about the fed, it's handling of -- its handling of the bailout, its role in the bailout of four years ago resinates with an intense group of voters, and i

think you'll see the issue that won't die, and ron paul's retiring, but rapped paul will be here to keep carrying that flag. >> host: new york, ray, republican, welcome. >> caller: yes. i'm just curious why they don't do anything about the keystone pipeline. it's been up five or six times now, and president obama seems to think it's a joke. he does nothing about it. i just wonder why, sir. >> guest: i think what you're going to see that that's going to be an issue decided by the presidential campaign. i think if mitt romney wins, that's going to be flipped over. the senate will likely change hands, and i think you'll basically see that that will get implemented. i think that's something that will be determined by the presidential campaign. it's just you're in a deadlock situation in which the senate does not want to pass or approve

that plan. there's not enough votes for it in the senate, and if romney wins president reel, i think you'll see the pipeline will be built. >> host: independent caller, jim, atlanta, georgia, good morning. >> caller: how are you doing this morning? >> host: good, you're on. >> caller: okay, thank you. what i wanted to bring up is the second half of the an anniversay of black man beat up at the town hall in south st. louis. nothing's been done about that, and the democrats have the siu out to pick him out of a crowd. if they beat him up and not for the people in the crowd, they probably would have beat him to death. the black leaders looked the other direction. i just wonder if we'll see that again this time. your comment, thank you. >> guest: i'm not entirely familiar with the issue you brought up, but i think what you'll see broadly in terms of race relation issues is it's

something that obama and senate democrats pushed. there's a movement in terms of civil rights issues, gay rights issues, and i think you're going to have another issue that will be cited largely by the presidential campaign. >> host: looking at the presidential election and all of the things that are being delayed until after, not just the presidential election, but the senate and house elections as well, refresh for us, paul kane, what else is on the back burner until we see who wins control of the white house as well as the bodies of congress. >> guest: yeah. you have the expiring bush tax cuts that we've talked about that were first enacted in 2001 and 2003. they expire december 3 1*s. there's the sequestering with the first hit taking effect

early next year. in addition, there's a whole slew of tax benefits for all sorts of various entities, alternative energy tax breaks, tax breaks for everything like bow and arrow makers to research and development. all of this stuff is coming in line on december 31st, and because of the deadlock of last summer and the real inability to strike any sort of big grand bargain, they have basically decided that they would take it to the people. that's what president obama said to eric cantor sort of famously in the middle of last summer in the big standoff at the white house. obama was eventually tired of what cantor was saying and pushed back the said and says, eric, we can take this to the people, and i think that's regimely for the most part what we'll see happen, and the break down here at the capitol and whoever helds the presidency has

a real advantage over determines of outcome there. >> host: are you seeing behind the scenes in negotiations and talks going on when it comes to decisions about the fiscal cliff, decisions about raising the debt limit or dealing with spending issues? >> guest: you know, what we're seeing on the hill right now is the initial talks like some committee chairman and subcommittee chairman are talking about, putting out ideas, floating ideas. right now, starting today, john mccain, lindsey graham, three senate republicans doing barn storming of key swing states, north carolina, virginia, and finishing in new hampshire tomorrow trying to raise attention to the whole issue of potential cuts to the military. people are doing these things, but we're not at a point where they are really sitting down in a room the way we would normally

see with some really deep, serious negotiations. i think they are generally waiting on that for november and december. >> host: paul kane, congressional reporter for the "the washington post," and prior to that, you worked for roll call covering the senate leadership from 2000-2005, and in 2006, you covered the ethical scandals. he's also worked for the record of new jersey, and he covered capitol hill, and among stories then was covering the fbi and justice department investigation into the democratic new jersey getting gifts for cash scandal and covered the gingrich revolution, and early in the career was a copy editor for china daily, and i think lish language newspaper in beijing. james, republican, mesa, arizona. good morning. >> caller: yes, good morning, hello. how are you doing? >> host: good, go right ahead. >> er